IF LEEDS' suffering supporters were looking for any consolation from the new era of realism blowing like an ill wind through football, then at least they were in the right place on Saturday.

When the demoralised visiting fans broke into a refrain of 'Sack the Board', it was like presenting the Evertonians with a favourite old record, so they happily joined the chorus with more relish than mere sarcasm would usually provide.

Goodison Park has been home to more than its fair share of protests, cloak-and-dagger departures to Newcastle and crown jewel sales in recent years for the home fans not to empathise with the misery now gripping Elland Road.

But there is little room for charity in Premiership football and with Leeds spending more money in 18 months than Everton have seen in a decade, Goodison was a place where Peter Ridsdale was never going to receive sympathy, only valuable lessons.

Thanks to the lavish gamble for Champions League gold, the board of Leeds put their Goodison counterparts on a par with Athina Roussel - the grand-daughter and sole heir of Aristotle Onassis - in terms of financial security, even if an extra #200,000 for Colin Healy and Kings Dock serve as reminders of Everton's own continuing hardship.

The biggest gamble from the Everton hierarchy in recent times was the appointment of a young manager with no Premiership experience to preserve the club's top-flight status.

But David Moyes arrived armed with more than that in mind.

And with a determination to install a long-term strategy that would see emerging young talent driving the change, coupled with an honesty about financial restraints that Ridsdale sorely lacked, the Blues boss is showing troubled clubs the way forward - even if namesake O'Leary still holds the self-proclaimed title of best young manager in Britain.

The irony, of course, was that Everton took another step in the direction of the Champions League on Saturday at the expense of the former semi-finalists turned crisis-club.

Europe will represent a deserved bonus this season if it can be reached, but for an indication of how far they have come and how quickly, Leeds provided a useful barometer.

Even without disillusioned, misled fans it was still like old times at Goodison as a chairman arrived at a game with his own security guards.

Before the game two burly minders stood outside the boardroom after death threats had been made against Ridsdale, although there was no truth in the rumour he later sold the hardest one to Manchester City to protect Scouserbaiting Kevin Keegan.

With so many distractions the actual football itself was in serious danger of turning into a sideshow and for 45 minutes that is precisely what happened.

It was seriously dour stuff, a Steve Watson chance blazed over the bar from 12 yards at one end and a Harry Kewell goalbound shot blocked by David Unsworth cancelled each other out.

Unsworth later admitted an oldfashioned rollicking was dished out at the interval and Everton heeded the warnings to dominate the second half.

Yet it is worth pointing out that for all the hardship suffered this season, Leeds still had the quality and experience to have stretched the Blues on Saturday and found themselves ultimately and comfortably beaten.

heir captain Dominic Matteo admitted: "I know the supporters will feel that this is a desperate situation, but we still have a very strong squad, there is still plenty to be optimistic about.

"We had a team of internationals at Everton, and we had internationals on the bench. It is still a strong squad."

Yet it was a strong squad that, unlike Moyes', is not playing to the sum of its parts.

The Blues made their intentions clear from the opening seconds of the restart to gradually take control of a game and seized it once the breakthrough arrived from the 56th-minute penalty that deflated Leeds' fragile morale.

Three minutes into the second half Li Tie, who celebrated the Chinese New Year with a sparkling midfield display, sent Tomasz Radzinski racing clear of the depleted Leeds defence with a raking pass only for the striker to scuff his shot narrowly wide of the far post.

That was the Canadian's only bad touch, however, as the miss galvanised him into action and he tore the York-shiremen to pieces thereafter.

An identical ball from Alan Stubbs sent the striker scurrying away again shortly afterwards and as he shaped to shoot from the same spot he was clearly felled by a combination of Danny Mills' trip and push.

Referee Mark Halsey had no doubts, nor did his linesman who instantly signalled for a spot-kick, and neither did Unsworth as he despatched a confident penalty into the bottom corner with Paul Robinson heading the wrong way.

Strangely the only contentious note about the incident was from a Blue perspective.

Halsey dismissed Joseph Yobo at Newcastle for the same offence, yet here there was only a yellow for Mills.

"I've seen players go for less," mused Moyes. "But then no-one wants to see players sent off."

The opener marked the start of sustained Everton pressure, which peaked when the move of the match allowed the man of the match to make the points safe.

Li Tie and Unsworth added to a flowing build up with a neat one-two and the midfielder slipped such a precision pass through the Leeds defence that Radzinski had time and space to take a careful touch before curling the ball beyond the advancing keeper.

The striker then peppered the Gwladys Street goal with two volleys while the only contribution from the Leeds' attack was a late foul by Alan Smith that brought chants of "You're being sold in the morning, sold in the morning!" from the Goodison gallery.

Substitute Kevin Campbell tried to pick Radzinski out for a late third only for Gary Kelly to intercept on the goal-line, but the decision to be generous was only made because the Blues were home and dry long before then.

Everton's push for Europe continued with ease on Saturday, but for Terry Venables the reminders of his plight didn't end with the final whistle.

In the TV interview room an hour after the game he was asked if he could see any light at the end of the tunnel. Just at that precise moment, someone switched the lights off.